17 minute read
COVER STORY
City Election 2021 Fresh Frame
Mayor Alan Webber rolls to a second term; he’ll have a different City Council to work with
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WILLIAM MELHADO william@sfreporter.com
Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber will have a chance to do it all again after voters elected him to a second term Nov. 2.
Early unofficial results show Webber earned 55% of votes, winning the race outright without invoking the city’s ranked-choice voting runoff rules. The victory contrasted his first election in 2018, when ranked-choice voting among five candidates went into a fourth round before he was declared the winner.
City Councilor JoAnne Vigil Coppler, who chose not to run for re-election for her council seat in favor of seeking the top job, received about 35% of votes, according to returns updated around 11:45 pm on election night; Alexis Martinez Johnson got 10%.
“Elections are always about the future and Santa Fe’s future is bright and full of promise,” Webber said during a victory speech at Hotel Santa Fe. “We’ve heard on the doorsteps of our residents and phone calls...what our residents want: affordable housing and a sustainable environment, jobs and economic opportunity for our workers and their families, parks and recreation for our neighborhoods.”
Webber rolled to victory amid moderate voter turnout, with fewer than 20,000 people casting ballots in the mayor’s race, according to early, unofficial results.
Over in the South Capitol neighborhood, yellow “Vote Here” signs created an autumnal scene amidst the orange and white pumpkins spilling from every corner of St. John’s United Methodist Church. A steady stream of primarily District 2 voters filed into the polling place Tuesday morning as a supporter flapped an “Alan Webber for Mayor” sign on the corner urging passing motorists to come cast their ballot.
In the mayoral race, few of the voters SFR spoke with utilized the ranked choice voting system—the city’s third go at it. The decision not to select more than one candidate was best summed up by District 2 voter Eileen Tenn, who tells SFR, “I didn’t want to elevate someone that I didn’t like.”
Martinez Johnson is the only mayoral candidate this year who has promoted voters to rank her in the number two position, while her two competitors have remained mostly silent on the voting process—likely because both know their bases, as Tenn made clear, didn’t want anything to do with the other camp.
Tenn, who voted for Webber, tells SFR, “I like his forward thinking about business and I think we need to focus on those kinds of resources.” Tenn adds distracting issues marred the mayoral race. “I think the things that came up in the election, like the monument, were ridiculous,” she says, referring to the toppling of the obelisk on the Plaza last year on Indigenous Peoples Day. Webber came under fire after he first called for the monument’s removal, then chastised protesters who tore it down.
Doug McClellan, another District 2 voter, says he felt differently about the obelisk: “I disagree with the handling of the monument issue.” But that didn’t
-Patty Karlovitz, voter
sway McClellan to give a vote to Webber’s opponents. “I still think he’s more qualified than the other two.”
District 2 voters Josh and Mitra Devon also opted out of ranked choice voting. Both recently moved to Santa Fe from Denver, because “I love the culture here, the people here,” Mitra Devon says. She adds that they both cast ballots for Vigil Coppler, “I don’t want it to change here into something it’s not.”
A lively party for Vigil Coppler was underway at the Santa Fe Country Club as results came in.
At 10 pm, after Webber had made his victory speech, Vigil Coppler told SFR “it’s not over until it’s over,” adding that final results weren’t yet in.
“I’m feeling good,” Vigil Coppler said. “We understand not all the votes are in so I’m not making a judgment either way. I feel like we ran a really good campaign and I think that we brought up the issues that are important to Santa Fe and Santa Feans. I don’t think
we’re going to know for a while tonight.”
Shortly after talking with SFR, Vigil Coppler addressed the crowd of about 50, saying, “There’s a heck of a lot more votes to count,” and thanked her supporters.
Mike Henderson saw a friend outside of Montezuma Lodge around lunchtime on Tuesday and asked for some last minute election advice. The friends wanted to choose a candidate who represented “something we were here to vote for, which was someone who would give us more freedoms and protect our sovereignty, we’re talking in relation to this whole mandate for vaccines and things.”
He says, based on this issue, there was only one clear choice, “That’s why we voted for Martinez [Johnson].”
Patty Karlovitz has never missed an election in the 25 years she has lived in Santa Fe. The publisher of the magazine Local Flavor tells SFR, “In both cases, the other candidates, I didn’t want them.” Rather than rank the other candidates, Karlovitz says, “For me there was a very clear line,” and a vote for the incumbent.
But Karlovitz didn’t hold back criticism of Webber. “I can’t wait to see him... to tell him how disgusted I am at how this city looks,” she says. Even though Vigil Coppler made basic city services, including park maintenance, a frequent talking point throughout the campaign, Karlovitz explains that the councilor failed to provide specific solutions: “It’s not enough to identify a problem. I can identify a problem, that’s easy.”
Of all the voters SFR chatted with on Tuesday, Michael Kaye comes the closest to kind words for Webber: “He’s really got a hard row to hoe. I think he’s doing his best.” Kaye, who is retired but volunteers with Habitat for Humanity, also opted out of ranked-choice voting, instead ranking his preferred candidates multiple times: Webber and Lindell. (This approach to “ranking” results produces the same outcome as voting for only one candidate.)
Brian O’Keefe waited outside Montezuma Lodge with Tilly, a dog he’s fostering until she finds a new home. But O’Keefe isn’t planning for any of the mayoral candidates to find shelter in City Hall.
“I’m not going to vote for mayor,” he tells SFR. “I don’t feel Mayor Webber has a grasp of how the city operates.” As for the other two candidates, he adds, “I don’t see real initiative, new ideas, new concepts” from them.
The candidates also took turns directly and indirectly hurling barbs at one another via the city’s Ethics and Campaign Review Board, which dismissed complaints filed both against and by Webber. Vigil Coppler also alleged Webber made inappropriate remarks to her in 2019 when she accused the mayor during a livestreamed debate of having told her not to get her “panties in a twist.” Webber has maintained he does not remember using the words, but also apologized for “something he said.”
Webber led the pack with private fundraising, breaking his own record for the most expensive Santa Fe mayor’s race in history by amassing a war chest of over $461,000 from donors near and far as of a Nov. 1 report. Vigil Coppler raised less than half that amount, reporting $153,378 this week. Martinez Johnson trailed with just over $21,000.
City voter turnout appeared to hover around 30%, according to early unofficial returns posted on the secretary of state’s website. Of 60,633 voters, 18,098 cast ballots for mayor. About 9,333 of those votes came before Election Day from both mailed ballots and early in-person voters, the county clerk reported. The turnout is significantly lower than the city’s 2018 municipal contests, when 38% of registered voters pulled the lever.
Councilor Signe Lindell—the incumbent in District 1 who won her bid for a third term—spent most of the day with a campaign sign on the sidewalk in front of Gonzales Community School.
She says this year’s voter turnout— which she considers impressive—is a sign of the times.
“I think any year there’s a mayoral [race], we get a bigger turnout but I also think there are issues people care about and I think the mood of the country is voting,” Lindell tells SFR. “It’s easy to vote in Santa Fe, and we’re seeing, all over the country, measures to stop people from being able to vote easily, so I think we cherish that.”
Lindell was outside for one of the few Election Day snafus in Santa Fe, when the power went out for about 20 minutes at Gonzales Community School around midday.
Carmela Winneberger, a Southside resident, voted for Vigil Coppler. The destruction of the obelisk last summer and the city’s response weighed heavily for her.
SFR spoke with several other voters at Gonzales a few hours before the polls closed.
Judith Benkendorf, a resident of District 1, voted for Lindell and Webber. She considered a host of issues, including housing, abortion and the environment.
“Those are all very important to me and things that Mayor Webber has already stuck his foot into very successfully and he needs to be able to lead,” Benkendorf says.
She opted not to rank candidates, but her husband, Norman Marks, chose to for the mayoral race, with Webber first.
The voters chose Webber to push toward that positive future.
In his first remarks to supporters after the results came in on Tuesday night, Webber said: “Our challenges are many, but our resources are unlimited. They are the resources of the people of Santa Fe, the courage, the resilience, creativity, energy and love of an entire community.”
Alan Webber speaks to an audience of family, supporters and other New Mexico politicians after declaring victory on Tuesday night at Hotel Santa Fe as councilors Signe Lindell, Jamie Cassutt and Carol Romero-Wirth stand in the background.
BELLA DAVIS
City Councilor JoAnne Vigil Coppler addresses a crowd of about 50 supporters on election night, saying she wasn’t yet conceding the mayoral race because there were still more votes to count.
Julia Goldberg and Bella Davis contributed reporting.
Council Split
An upset, an easy victory and a new face mark Santa Fe City Council races
BY WILLIAM MELHADO william@sfreporter.com
Voters offered a mixed bag in the Santa Fe City Council races Tuesday night, choosing one candidate for a third term in a landslide, rejecting a popular incumbent in another race and adding newcomer Amanda Chavez to the dais.
Chavez—a teacher, principal and now school administrator—will assume her first public office with a vote of confidence from her district, where she picked up 75% of early, unofficial returns. That was good enough to handily dispatch Rebecca Romero and replace JoAnne Vigil Coppler to represent the Southside District 4.
“I’m excited,” Chavez tells SFR after the results came in. She received the highest percentage of votes among all Santa Fe candidates on the ballot. “We felt very confident the whole time. We really emphasized the importance of hearing from the community and as their public servant that is going to be my priority in setting up systems to truly hear what they think our city needs to be.”
Election night turned out significantly more grim for District 3’s Roman “Tiger” Abeyta, an executive with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Santa Fe and close ally of Mayor Alan Webber, who fell to tire shop owner Lee Garcia by 53% to 47% in his bid for a second term.
Garcia tells SFR late Tuesday he was on the edge of his seat as election returns trickled in late, with returns showing him ahead by about 100 votes as of press time in his first run for office.
The race with Abeyta was “clean,” he says, noting both candidates avoided mudslinging. “In a democracy we don’t need to do that…We talked about the community and what the needs are and we let the people go out and voice their opinion and that is with their vote.”
There was no upset in the crowded, four-candidate race in District 1. Voters chose incumbent Signe Lindell for a third term with 61% of unofficial results. Brian Gutierrez got the next highest number with 20% followed by Joe Hoback with 13% and Roger Carson with 6%.
Several voters who chatted with SFR outside Montezuma Lodge on the idyllic Election Day say they knew who they wanted in office and didn’t bother ranking the other candidates. District 1 was the only City Council race in which the city’s ranked-choice system could have been a factor, but with Lindell’s big lead, the instant runoff wasn’t needed.
Micah Sulich, another District 1 voter who recently graduated from New Mexico Tech, says his primary concern this election cycle was the overabundance of short-term rentals in the city.
But none of the candidates spoke to Sulich’s concerns, he laments.
“Honestly, of all the candidates, it was choosing the least worst for me,” Sulich says, adding that he cast one vote in the mayor and councilor races and didn’t bother ranking any others.
In District 2, in the north and east regions of the city, Councilor Carol Romero-Wirth sailed to a second term with no opposition.
Around 5:30 pm, a line of about 100 people meant a 40-minute wait to vote at the Santa Fe County Fairgrounds.
District 4 resident Mariquita Baca voted there for Chavez for City Council.
The winners of 2021’s contested City Council races: Signe Lindell in District 1, Lee Garcia in District 3 and Amanda Chavez in District 4.
Lee Garcia’s parents and family campaigned outside El Camino Real Academy just before polls closed Tuesday.
Baca says her background in education—Chavez is the director of special education for Santa Fe Public Schools and former principal of César Chávez Elementary School—was the biggest factor for her.
“I like that she’s putting kids first,” Baca says.
The campaign for Romero, the state government management analyst who ran against Chavez, likely took a hit in mid-October, when her 2006 guilty pleas to felony counts of embezzlement, forgery and credit card fraud came to light.
Education factored heavily for District 3 resident Adam Werber, too.
Werber voted for Abeyta. Along with education, an open space on South Meadows Road that’s been the subject of recent controversy was a major issue for him. The county earlier this year entered a sale agreement with affordable housing developer Homewise, upsetting many Southside residents.
Werber, who says he talked with Abeyta about the open space and the councilor “seemed open to listening to our situation,” didn’t vote in the last city election, but chose to do so this cycle “to make a difference.”
The pandemic weighed heavily in Angel Avila’s mayoral choice and that rippled into her choice for councilor. Avila is an Air Force veteran and social worker who now works with veterans.
“I like how he handled the pandemic,” Avila says of Webber. A District 3 voter, Avila had intended to vote for Lee Garcia, she says, until she received a flyer showing him pictured with Vigil Coppler.
“That turned it for me,” she says. Her opposition to Vigil Coppler, Avila said, stemmed from learning that she had voted against the city’s mask mandate and had referred to rental properties as “not real homes” (the latter refers to comments Vigil Coppler made during a discussion on affordable housing). “I’m a social worker,” Avila says. “Home is home.”
Half an hour from the close of polls, a few dozen people were still in line at Christian Life Church on Siringo Road.
Tony Lopez, a District 3 resident, tells SFR he voted for Garcia because public safety is the most important issue for him.
As the sun cast its last rays across El Camino Real Academy, poll worker Siiri Sanchez tells SFR Election Day at the District 3 polling place has been steady, but calm. She says this is her first time serving as a poll worker, which she took on to “see how the bones of [the voting system] are working...and to see the particular checks and balances we have here.”
She points to the need for accountability in election systems, explaining that each ballot goes through three points of checking.
“We should be open to be checked,” Sanchez says, adding that election transparency helps improve voters’ confidence.
Julia Goldberg and Bella Davis contributed reporting.
Other Elections
Also on the ballot in Santa Fe: a general obligation bond to cover remodeling and construction costs for schools and a mill levy, which pays for upkeep and maintenance in school buildings. Voters overwhelmingly supported the measures, with 79% and 73% in favor, repectively; neither the bond nor the mill levy changes the current tax rate.
In Albuquerque, Mayor Tim Keller easily rode to reelection, earning 56% of the vote and avoiding a runoff with Bernalillo County Sheriff Manuel Gonzales or right-wing radio host Eddy Aragon, according to early, unofficial results.
Gonzales finished a distant second, with 26%; and Aragon barely got a sniff, with just 18% of the more than 117,000 voters who cast ballots in New Mexico’s largest city.
Like in Santa Fe, a seemingly endless flood of ethics complaints and allegations of misconduct marred the race for the top government job in Albuquerque. Gonzales, whose time as sheriff has been marked by an oldschool Drug War approach to the job, was found to have forged signatures in an attempt to qualify for public financing. Then, he accused Keller, with no evidence, of having an extramarital affair with a subordinate and covering up corruption at City Hall during a televised, 11th-hour debate.
Albuquerque voters also rejected a $50 million bond proposal for a new soccer stadium, where the wildly popular New Mexico United would have played. Keller supported the bond, but it drew the ire of neighborhood groups and plenty of voters—the proposal failed with 65% giving it the thumbsdown. But they approved a dozen other bonds, including one for $25 million for public safety.
SIGNATURE LIVE AUCTION
Live and Online: November 5–6
Thursday, November 4
4 PM: Film | Poetry in Paint: Bea Mandelman in Taos 5 PM: Talk | Mandelman and Modernism in New Mexico with Michael Kamins 5 – 7 PM: Opening Reception and Auction Preview
Friday, November 5
10 AM – 3 PM: Open House and Auction Preview 3 – 5 PM: Session I | (Lots 1-119) 5 PM: Talk | The Galleon Trade Route: Spanish Colonial Trade Between Manila and Acapulco with Samuel Saunders 5 – 7 PM: Open House and Session II Preview
Saturday, November 6
9 AM: Session II Preview 10 AM: Session II | (Lots 120 – 219) 1:30 PM: Session II | (Lots 220 – 437)
Lot 388: KIM DOUGLAS WIGGINS (b. 1960), Village of San Jose Landscape - New Mexico, 1992, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in. (76.20 x 101.60 cm.), Estimate: $6,000 – $9,000
Register to bid and attend at santafeartauction.com Exhibition of all lots available online and at our Baca Railyard showroom 932 Railfan Road, Santa Fe 505.954.5858 info@santafeartauction.com
